Author Topic: (Skyseas of Gensokyo) Nazrin Quest (Part 3) (Read 85211 times)

DracoOmega · « **Reply #870 on:** July 21, 2011, 05:01:54 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 21, 2011, 04:54:24 AM

>Is it moving directly towards us?

>Not directly, no. You threw the stone southwest. The spider is currently east-northeast of you. Its course will probably take it within less than 10 feet of you, though.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #871 on:** July 21, 2011, 05:08:43 AM »

>Can we climb the tree we're behind before it gets that close?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #872 on:** July 21, 2011, 05:25:24 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 21, 2011, 05:08:43 AM

>Can we climb the tree we're behind before it gets that close?

>It's unfortunately not a very suitable tree for climbing - it's far too bushy and not very tall. There's another close by that could work, though. You expect you could be up it before it got close, even if it abandoned its slow pace for something more hasty.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #873 on:** July 21, 2011, 05:35:19 AM »

>Make for that tree, then, and start scampering up.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #874 on:** July 21, 2011, 05:51:58 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 21, 2011, 05:35:19 AM

>Make for that tree, then, and start scampering up.

>You shift out of your cover and make for that tree, then start to hoist yourself up it. Your ascent shakes the limbs beneath your feet, setting their leaves to rustling. It becomes impossible to hear the spider's quiet motion over the sound of your own movement, but at least this implies it hasn't started to rush you.
>You make it 20 feet or so up the tree without hearing the spider burst towards you or even catching a glimpse of it. Somewhat frustratingly, it seems to have fallen silent again. You're quite certain it could not have gotten far enough away to be outside of hearing range in the time your climb took.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #875 on:** July 21, 2011, 06:05:59 AM »

>Glance downward, see if we can see that spider.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #876 on:** July 21, 2011, 06:17:33 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 21, 2011, 06:05:59 AM

>Glance downward, see if we can see that spider.

>You glance downward; the spider is certainly not below you. You decide to go a step further and glance in other directions, as well. You can see no sign of it at all at the moment.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #877 on:** July 21, 2011, 06:27:41 AM »

>It's a giant spider, it can't stay hidden forever. At least not from all our senses.
>Can we smell it from here?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #878 on:** July 22, 2011, 02:12:52 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 21, 2011, 06:27:41 AM

>It's a giant spider, it can't stay hidden forever. At least not from all our senses.
>Can we smell it from here?

>At very least, it would seem to need to more eventually.
>Not in any sense useful enough to suggest where it is.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #879 on:** July 22, 2011, 02:21:40 AM »

>"Alright, you overgrown fly eater. I got all day, how about you?"
>Is there another tree around we can jump to?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #880 on:** July 22, 2011, 02:30:24 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 22, 2011, 02:21:40 AM

>"Alright, you overgrown fly eater. I got all day, how about you?"
>Is there another tree around we can jump to?

>You call out a taunt but receive no reply from the spider. Apparently your hash language has failed to rile it.
>While there's no shortage of trees in the vicinity, the most probable result of leaping at most of them would be a face full of spruce needles followed by a swift tumble to the ground. There's only one you would bank on safely transiting to from your current position. It is a short distance north-northwest.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #881 on:** July 22, 2011, 02:35:01 AM »

>"Fine, you wanna sit there and watch something? Watch this."
>Make a leap for that tree.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #882 on:** August 06, 2011, 02:01:35 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on July 22, 2011, 02:35:01 AM

>"Fine, you wanna sit there and watch something? Watch this."
>Make a leap for that tree.

>You flip the pitchfork's tines behind you, then twine your arm around the haft to secure it for the jump, while leaving that hand just a little leverage to grasp at branches. Then you position yourself carefully, shifting towards the most open section of the other tree. You leap!
>You grasp your free hand tightly around a stout branch as you sail by it, then reach out somewhat clumsily with your other hand, grabbing another branch to halt your momentum. After a moment to shift your grip along the branches and get firmer purchase, you flip yourself up into the tree and land on your feet.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #883 on:** August 06, 2011, 03:55:59 AM »

Hot damn, we're back in business.

>Look around once we're confidant of our footing. Let's see if that made Crawly come out of hiding.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #884 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:09:40 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on August 06, 2011, 03:55:59 AM

>Look around once we're confidant of our footing. Let's see if that made Crawly come out of hiding.

>Your footing feels sufficiently secure. You scan about the forest, but still neither see nor hear sign of the spider. That being said, the trees provide enough cover to fully conceal even something as large as a giant spider in quite a few places, some of them even fairly near to you, although your vantage does help somewhat.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #885 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:19:12 AM »

>Bah.
>Inventory.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #886 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:23:04 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on August 06, 2011, 04:19:12 AM

>Bah.

>You grumble in silence. Stupid oversized arachnids...

Quote from: Sourfang on August 06, 2011, 04:19:12 AM

>Inventory.

>Pitchfork (in hands)
>Prism Pendant (around neck)
>Seeker's Badge (pinned to chest)
>195 Val Razuan guilders
>Compass
>Traveling pack
>Traveling rations
>Canteen (mostly empty)
>Lockpicks
>3 kunai
>Picture of Sokrates
>Fuwafuwa Heart Droplet
>Mysterious rusty part
>Antique Val Razuan 1 guilder coin
>Dowsing rods
>Tie-dyed umbrella
>Spool of baling twine

Oldmansour · « **Reply #887 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:26:00 AM »

>How far is it to the ground from where we are?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #888 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:32:34 AM »

Quote from: Sourfang on August 06, 2011, 04:26:00 AM

>How far is it to the ground from where we are?

>Around 12 feet or so.

Hello Purvis · « **Reply #889 on:** August 06, 2011, 04:37:19 AM »

>Do we think we can make that kind of drop if needs be?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #890 on:** August 06, 2011, 05:05:27 AM »

Quote from: Killer Purvis on August 06, 2011, 04:37:19 AM

>Do we think we can make that kind of drop if needs be?

>It shouldn't be a problem for you, if you did it deliberately.

Hello Purvis · « **Reply #891 on:** August 06, 2011, 05:26:22 AM »

>Pause for a moment. What do we hear? Particularly in regards to leaves moving?

DracoOmega · « **Reply #892 on:** August 06, 2011, 05:47:44 AM »

Quote from: Killer Purvis on August 06, 2011, 05:26:22 AM

>Pause for a moment. What do we hear? Particularly in regards to leaves moving?

>You pause and listen attentively for a few moments. The forest is fairly quiet, although you hear a pair of birds among the nearby trees, and some snatches of short, quick movements in the brush, a short distance from you. The movement sounds like it is coming from far too small a creature to be a giant spider, however - perhaps a squirrel? Your quarry still seems to be laying annoying low.
>Wait. You think you hear a very faint sound of leaves rustling to the east, perhaps 15 feet away. The sound is moving painstakingly slowly, making it a little hard to estimate size at first, but you think there's a very good chance it could be the spider. Several trees and quite still-looking brush are blocking your sight lines in its direction.

Hello Purvis · « **Reply #893 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:04:55 AM »

>How firm do we feel out footing is in out current position?
>What is to our other cardinal directions, and below us?

Trees are not a good place to fight. Especially with a two hander.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #894 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:20:20 AM »

Quote from: Killer Purvis on August 06, 2011, 06:04:55 AM

>How firm do we feel out footing is in out current position?
>What is to our other cardinal directions, and below us?

>Reasonably secure. You're at no risk of falling off unless you try to do something very fancy, or something physically encroaches on you.
>You are on a large branch extending from the southeast side of the tree. There are several other branches capable of bearing your weight spread around the trunk. You are surrounded by broadly similar terrain on all sides: stocky conifers and scattered dense shrubbery on gently sloping ground. There is a notably large rock to the southwest. To the north is the hill that you were working your way towards. The slope is closest to your northwest, and grows more distant as you move eastward. The terrain appears to be most open towards the northeast, although only enough such that there are scattered breaks in the treeline, and nothing that could be rightly called a clearing. Immediately below you is relatively open dirt, with a scattered leafy plant.

Hello Purvis · « **Reply #895 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:29:50 AM »

>Do we have any idea how likely we are to lose balance if we went around stabbing with a pitchfork?

What do you think, Sour? I don't like our odds up here, there's a good chance of those tines getting stuck and us being taken for a ride.

DracoOmega · « **Reply #896 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:33:39 AM »

Quote from: Killer Purvis on August 06, 2011, 06:29:50 AM

>Do we have any idea how likely we are to lose balance if we went around stabbing with a pitchfork?

>You have a very good sense of balance, and your current perch is not especially precarious by those standards. You don't imagine that stabbing alone would do enough to make you lose your footing.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #897 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:45:27 AM »

Hmmmm.
Things would be so much simpler if we could see the damn thing.
I had planned to cut a segment of twine, tie it to our kunai, and throw it into the ground, see if that gives us a view of where Crawly is, then we can judge how to handle him. If it charges the kunai, we can either pull it back up, or simply let the string go. Either way, we can then stab Crawly the head with our pitchfork, or throw another kunai at it. If it doesn't charge, we pull the kunai back up, no harm done, and then go from there. I'd rather not jump down when we don't know where it is, but if we have to, so be it.

Hello Purvis · « **Reply #898 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:49:52 AM »

I'm thinking that the twine may take too much time; better to just toss a kunai and get it back when we can. Otherwise, it's not a bad idea.

Oldmansour · « **Reply #899 on:** August 06, 2011, 06:58:13 AM »

We don't appear to be in any rush. Nothing's harrying us (yet), and we don't have anywhere pressing to be. And really, how long does it take to measure out and cut 12 or so feet of twine and tie it to something else? A minute, tops? And you never know, Crawly might give us some sign of where he is in that span of time, save us the trouble of throwing it in the first place.